A whole town in Germany had to be evacuated last week, while an enormous bomb was successfully diffused. Diffused means dismantled so it wouldn’t blow up.

The bomb was from World War II (WWII). It had been dropped on Germany by the Allies (the coalition of countries, including Canada, that fought Germany in the war) in the mid-1940s.

There are many unexploded bombs in the country, but this one – at 1.8 tonnes – was one of the biggest. There was another, smaller, bomb there too, which had been dropped by U.S. forces.

The bombs had been laying at the bottom of the Rhine river in a town called Koblenz.

When the water level in the river fell, due to a dry period, the bombs were discovered.

Because they had been sitting in water for a long time, they were very dangerous.